Have you started planning for 2021 in terms of Marketing?
If not, this is the right time to start making notes of what worked in 2020 and what might work in the coming year!
Brands and marketers have struggled in 2020 to brace through the unexpected series of events that unfolded. It is in these turbulent times that marketing has proved to be a true blessing for businesses worldwide.
Businesses across the globe felt the effect of the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders faced a variety of interrelated problems ranging from keeping their workers and customers secure, shoring cash and liquidity, reorienting activities, and managing complex programs of government help.
It is now time to draw all your attention to key areas of the organization and marketing trends 2021. We hope to provide the much-needed stabilization your brand deserves and explore new growth strategies for the new year.
“We cannot re-write the chapters of history already past, but we can learn from them, evolve, and adapt. The new normal may even be a better normal, certainly a different normal”
In his article – “The New Normal,” a quote from Ian Davis, Managing Partner at McKinsey, summarises: For certain brands, the only agenda is near-term survival. Others peer through the cloud of doubt, worrying about how to put themselves once the crisis has ended and things are back to normal. The question is: What will the next normal look like? While no one can tell how long the crisis is going to last, what we’re seeing on the other side isn’t going to look like the normal of recent years.
As governments phase out pandemic-related restrictions and corporations start to reopen, there is a feeling that we might be on the verge of returning to normal.
What Will Be The Next Step For Marketers?
Now that we are entering a recovery period, brands have to reimagine their future in a post-COVID world and Marketers have to be ready with a new strategy.
The position of the Marketers must go beyond developing a great marketing plan with the crisis affecting normal customer behavior and company operations. They must be innovation pioneers, driving digital transformation, and communicating in a more meaningful way with customers.
Marketers need to incorporate innovative ways to gather real-time knowledge about their consumers and rivals in order to create a better user experience and use this insight to help decisions within an enterprise.
This means you must start to gather and analyze data responsibly, efficiently, and rapidly from a variety of sources, which could include retailers, digital channels, and media.
Many brands spent less time churning out social media posts this year and more time just creating content that felt thoughtful, valuable, and in-touch with the world around them. In 2021, the trend of “less is more” is likely to continue, according to Kelly Hendrickson of Hubspot.
Content should form the foundation of your marketing campaign in today’s business climate. Every organization already knows how to draw its clients, with so much data available everywhere. The acts they’ll take are what’s important.
Marketing guru Seth Godin also said that “content marketing is the only marketing left.” The content unlocks the key that connects your brand to your audience, whether it’s a blog post or a podcast.
While we know that COVID-19 demonstrates its effect on the buying behavior of consumers, it becomes necessary to remain concerned with the changing needs of customers in order to maintain them under all circumstances.
Try your best to ensure that your products are represented as trustworthy, empathetic, and meeting customer needs in order to attract and maintain clients.
Marketers must convey a clear sense of the intent of their products, a cause for which the brand stands up, or an environment in which the brand seeks to make a real difference. Brands can do this through the ventures with which they want to be involved, the partners with which they want to collaborate, and the messages they send to clients.
Most significantly, brands would need to backup bold promises with actions. A backlash has already been suffered by certain brands who are seen as taking advantage of a cause or circumstance.
4 Digital Marketing Lessons To Scale Your Brand in 2021
The world around us has changed and it’s no secret. Living in the ‘next normal’ has driven us to recreate and re-evaluate the ‘existing ways’ of doing things. The best brands can do is adapt and cater to new marketing trends, while maintaining a good bond with customers, as everything around continues to change.
Connect Digitally
A greater focus must be placed on leveraging technology to drive consumer engagement While improving consumer engagement will continue to be a priority for brands, constant innovation is needed in our approach. The introduction of unique digital initiatives will be key as in the near future, on-the-ground activities will continue to take a back seat.
During the pandemic, zoom meetings and virtual visits have become the norm and these are likely to become a trend in the next normal.
Image Source – newcontext.com
The best way for brands to bring a semblance of normalcy to marketing initiatives, along with providing a much-needed healthy moment in the current situation, is to connect digitally with an entire consumer community from around the world.
Work Together & Empathize
The pandemic is a critical concern, and marketers need to be aware of how customers are linked. Every day as we continue to adapt to new challenges, forming alliances and strategically tapping into synergies can deliver great results in this diverse and dynamic business environment.
Working together with members of the group also helps with a wider audience to strengthen faith and brand ethics.
Localizing The Experiences
Businesses looking to extend their relations with customers will benefit from localizing their marketing even in the next normal.
To control this hyperlocal operation and interaction, marketers would be forced to rewire their operating model to provide a more granular scale of presence.
“Brands must connect with consumers on their playing fields. And that means understanding people’s languages, cultures, and traditions,” says Neil Patel.
Here is a fascinating example of how a popular streaming platform has localized its experience across different verticals to resonate with a new audience.
Netflix: Creation of content targeted to various regions
The experience of Netflix is all about providing users with the content they want, and this theme runs from film suggestions on the homepage down to translated subtitles across their website. In reality, on both the developer and translation end, Netflix is well known for its localization efforts.
Image Source – brandchannel.com
In addition to translating their own apps and interfaces, they have built both the technologies and processes they need, but also subtitles and voice dubbing of content. But their efforts on the content development front are more impressive.
We all know that in the last few years, Netflix has become a content giant, making its own original movies and shows.
Taking inspiration from Netflix, start making your efforts of Localization!
Hold Your Brand Accountable
Marketers must convey a clear sense of the intent of their products, a cause for which the brand stands up, or an environment in which the brand seeks to make a real difference. But take note: brands will have to make transparent and authentic promises to causes they believe in or risk calling them out by newly motivated customers.
While nobody knows what the precise contours of the next normal are going to look like, we know that things are not going to go back to the way they were. But we must stay prepared with new strategies to face such uncertain situations.
Time To Make Your New Year Marketing Resolution!
Marketing has evolved to meet new habits and demands of brands and consumers alike in a year filled with unprecedented change.
We can safely say that 2021 will be the year of continuing digital transformation and engagement, where brands will be made or broken by the innovative use of technology, marketing strategy, and creative ideas.
By planning for these above-mentioned possibilities, rise above your rivals, kickstart brainstorm sessions, and be data-driven.
In order to adapt to the changing environment, marketers will need to continuously track new marketing trends and indicators, commit to bold changes in marketing strategies and investments, and develop resilience within the company
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